Wednesday, May 10, 2017

A Three-Ring Circus at Airport "Security"

That did not take long, did it! Nary but six weeks ago the U.S. government banned laptops being taken on board aircraft, in carry-on, on flights to America originating in a few airports in the Near East. It was obvious then that it was only a matter of time before the prohibition was extended to other airports, and moves are indeed afoot to do precisely that. It makes sense: Abdullah Al-Jihadi could easily circumvent the original rule by flying from, say, Istanbul to Germany (Germany famously lets anybody in), have a short layover, and proceed on to the States, an explosive-laden laptop always in his carry-on backpack. The only way to forestall that possibility is to ban laptops, etc. in carry-ons on all flights to the U.S., which is almost inevitable to happen sooner than later.It will not stop there though. Surely, if America believes it necessary to take this step, then the threat must be real, and, betimes, all other countries will do the same. The ban on liquids is instructive in this regard, and regulations only ever get tightened, never relaxed. For it is not enough that people get routinely harassed, humiliated, sexually abused, and generally treated like criminals by the jumped-up semi-literate clowns at airports' "security" checkpoints. "You, peasant, take off your belt and shoes!" "What is this fluid in the baby-bottle, ma'am? Your breast milk, you say? Drink it!" "Sir, yes you, the 90-year-old egg-timer with the walker! Step on over here so we can swab your crotch for traces of explosives!" "You, little toddler too young to talk: Crawl through this body scanner! Unaided!!" Evidently, even more ways to inconvenience travelers are needed. The long put-upon passengers will have two choices. The first is to pack their laptops, tablets, cameras, etc. (soon enough it will be cellphones, too) in their hold luggage, cross their fingers and toes, and hope for the very best. Mishandling of people's luggage, with it being tossed around like throw-pillows, as well as thievery among luggage personnel are legendary, so putting in anything worth more than fifty bucks is a crapshoot. The second option is to travel without. Being that most people need Internet access and cameras to record their escapades even on brief vacations, it is unclear if that is a viable option at all.

Two things come to mind though. Is this really about security? The more conspiratorially-minded might suspect this is rather aimed to bolster the insurance industry. Few people will put their $1,500+ laptops in their suitcases, knowing what fate might befall them. What about those who travel only with carry-on to save on the costs of checked bags? They will now have to spring for one, which will certainly gratify the airlines. The elite tin-foil-hat brigade might even suspect there may be a desire to dissuade people from traveling at all in the name of combating "climate change."This though is the nub of the issue: It is clear why this is happening, even assuming it is motivated by genuine security concerns. When the Western society and the wider world consistently refuse to even name the threat (that would be Islam and Moslems), let alone address it, the only alternative left is to victimize everyone. Everybody's convenience, time, dignity, and honor are routinely sacrificed on the altar of political correctness, which mandates that Moslems must not be profiled, even though they are the only ones carrying out terrorist attacks against airliners.